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Spring 2011

 

Students

• Craft/Material Studies students Cathy Nault, Adah Kanter, Lucy Gillis, and Liz Borsetti (BFA candidates) along with Rachel Freeman (Communication Arts) and Catherine Griffith (Inter-disciplinary studies) will participate in "Resist/Resistance" an exhibition at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC - January 30 - April 3. The work in this exhibition uses textile materials or techniques to interpret the concept of resistance.

• Mary Elkins (MFA candidate) is in the Materials: Hard and Soft exhibition at the Greater Denton Arts Council Center for the Visual Arts in Texas February 4 - April 3.

• Colleen Freeman, (BFA candidate) and Spanish double major is one of four recipients of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for spring semester study abroad and will study at the University of Granada in Spain.

• Jacob Copetillo (MFA candidate) has his work included in the group exhibit Broadband at Page Bond Gallery in Richmond through January 29.
  Glass Eye Prosthetics

• Sean Donlon (BFA candidate) received a $3000 Undergraduate Research Grant to travel to Luascha, Germany to learn the art of Glass Eye Blowing, an art used to make medical prosthetics and realistic eyes for taxidermy animals in museums. A video will be made documenting Walter Hellbach (3rd generation glass blower) to share with students in the glass department. His faculty mentor for the project is Emilio Santini (glass)

• Jacob Sorenson, Mary Elkins, and Ginger Metzger (MFA candidates) are in the New Waves 2011 exhibit February 10-March 13, 2011 at the Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach. Ginger is also in the Gallery 5 Papier Machete exhibit in Richmond from January 7 until February 18 and won an honorable mention from the jurors.

• Jacob Copetillo, Laina Seay, and Jacob Vincent (MFA candidates) were selected by the faculty to receive SCHEV awards for their work and progress as graduate students.

 

Faculty news

• Andrea Keys Connell
  Susan Iverson has two tapestries in the American Tapestry Biennial 8 that opens at the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA January 21 - May 1.

• Andrea Keys Connell (Fountainhead Fellow) has a solo exhibit, (dis)Placement, at Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA, January 7- February 20. Andrea's work was also featured in January's Ceramics Monthly.

• Susie Ganch and Jack Wax
  each received Research Grants from VCUarts this year.

• Jack Wax was an artist in residence at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington in December 2010. Jack is also one of the curators/jurors for Superposition an exhibition of glass related sculpture. More info? Click here

• Sonya Clark's work was reviewed in the January issue of American Craft and is featured on and in the Global Africa catalog for the exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC. Sonya will give an Artist Lecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art on January 27 in Michigan. Sonya was also awarded a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship for 2012.

 

Alumni news

• Roberta Williamson (MFA) is one of 20 artists to receive a $20,000 Creative Workforce Fellowship for her outstanding work as a jeweler and metalsmith in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

• Hyun Kyung Yoon (MFA) had a solo exhibition in the highly prestigious gallery, Tong-In Gallery in Seoul, Korea December 28, 2010 thru January 12, 2011.

• Jackie Brown (MFA) has a solo exhibit Brain Fruit II at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE through April 17. The reception will be February 4 from 5-9

• Meg Roberts (BFA) has a solo show at the Quirk Gallery Vault Space February 5 -25 in Richmond, VA.

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) was a Visiting Artist at the Applied Craft and Design Program, a joint MFA program between Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon College of Arts and Craft last semester. Gabriel's article Manufacturing Interventions about artist Margarita Cabrera was featured on the cover of the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of FiberArts magazine. This semester Gabriel has taken an appointment as an adjunct instructor at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

• Andrea Donnelly (MFA) has her solo exhibit, Mindbody, featuring large-scale figurative weavings and woven/unwoven/rewoven inkblots February 4 - March 26 at the Artspace Visual Art Center in Raleigh , NC. Opening night will include four short performances by NYC choreographer Doug Varone and Dancers.

• Nanda Soderberg (MFA) will teach two glass courses this summer at two of the top summer programs in the country. One at Pilchuck and another at Haystack.

• Alissa Guzman (MFA) did an interview with artist, Roxy Paine, for the November 2010 issue of Whitehot magazine. Check it out: http://whitehotmagazine.com

• Rebecca Murtaugh (MFA) was in the Other End of the Line, curated by Ian Berry last fall at the Gansevoort Plaza in NYC. She was mentioned in the New Yorker for the show.

• Hiromi Takizawa (MFA) had her work featured in GAS News from Glass Art Society in US. From January 27 though April 30 she will be showing work in the group exhibit, Objects of Desire, at Bertha & Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery in NYC.

• Brooke HIne (MFA) was in two exhibits at the end of last semester: Skin Deep at Rowan University Art Gallery in Glassboro, NJ and The Imagined at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists(CfEVA) in Philadelphia, PA .

• Akiko Jackson (MFA) was in an exhibition last November at 739 Flash Space in Lawrence, Kansas curated by Darin White. Akiko was also a Visiting Artist for a lecture series and studio critiques at University of Central Missouri, Department of Art & Design

• (Sheal) Younseal Eum (MFA) has her work 'Sailing' in the New Waves 2011 exhibit February 10-March 13, 2011 at the Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach. Other alumni in the New Waves 2011 exhibit include Mary Cox (BFA) and Aaron McIntosh (MFA)

• Aaron McIntosh (MFA) was one of the three jurors for the Papier Machete exhibit at Gallery 5 that opened in Richmond on January 7.

• Vanessa Fernandez (BFA) just launched a new website of her jewlery. Check it out: vanessafernandezstudio.com

• Kiara Pelissier (MFA) taught at a glassworking class at Penland School last semester.

• Sarah Holden (BFA) is in the NAGAS - North American Graduate Art Survey at the Katherine E Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota from January 18th to February 16th with an opening reception on January 21st. Sarah's work in the 20/3/20 exhibition will be traveling to Athens, Georgia to be shown at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The show will open January 21.

 

 

Fall 2010

Students

• Kyle Buckner (BFA candidate) has been having great success with his furniture line. Check out his work in this Style Magazine feature article.

• Lauren Abrams (MFA candidate) is one of The LEAP Award finalists. The national prize was established to recognize emerging talent in the field of craft and is awarded through the Society for Craft in Pittsburgh.Two of our alumni have also been nominated as finalists (see below.)

• Gian Pierotti (MFA candidate) will be in the group exhibit, Doomslangers, October 20 - November 19, 2010 at Allegra LaViola Gallery in NYC.

 

Faculty

• Susan Iverson (Fiber Professor) will chair a panel and give a paper on Tapestry at the Textile Society of America conference in Lincoln, NE, 10/6 - 10/9

• Susie Ganch (Metal Professor) has a solo show at 211 Gallery at the University of Wyoming-Laramie, 10/8 -1 1/6

• Sayaka Suzuki (Glass Adjunct) has a solo show called Shut Up and Cook at the Vault Space at Quirk in Richmond, VA, 9/30 - 10/30

• Jack Wax (Glass Professor) is a visiting artist at the Royal College of Art in London, 10/21- 10/22

• Andrea Connell (Fountainhead Fellow) has work in the Figurative Association Symposium exhibition at Arrowmont. 10/27 - 10/30. Andrea alsohad a review in Art Papers Magazine this month.

• Sonya Clark (Chair) is in New Material World: Rethreading Technology at the Sheldon Museum in Lincoln, NE 10/8/10- 1/22/2011. Sonyais also in Taking Time at the Art Gallery of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom 10/13 - 12/20
  

 

Alumni

• Robin Muller (MFA) has two of her prototypes of electronic textiles created at the @Lab, the glowing curtain and the folded screen, in FABRICATION, an exhibit at the Cambridge Galleries, in Cambridge, Canada through October 24. This work is a result of research she has been doing after having received a $1 million grant from the Canadian government.

• Sarah Mizer (MFA) is among the 33 artists who participated in Yet Another Roadside Attraction. Artwork was displayed on the south side of the LED billboard on Interstate 195 in Richmond, VA all day on October 2

• Aaron McIntosh (MFA) is in the following upcoming solo shows: Patterns, Smith House Gallery, Arts Council of the Valley, Harrisonburg, VA Man Shy, Russell/Projects Richmond, VA, ADAM4ADAM & Other Boyfriends, Curated by Anna Walker, PG Contemporary Gallery, Houston, TX, and The Days of Eternity, Bliss Gallery, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
• Caitie Sellers (BFA) and Elizabeth Perkins (MFA) are LEAP Award finalists along with current student Lauren Abrams. The national prize was established to recognize emerging talent in the field of craft and is awarded through the Society for Craft in Pittsburgh.

• Alissa Guzman (MFA) continues to live and write in NYC. Check out her recent articel on artist and musician Patti Smith in Whitehot Magazine.

• Adam Welch (MFA) is moderating a panel "The Shape of Judgment" at the Critical: Santa Fe Conference in October 27-30. This 3-day Symposium includes
  many important folks such as Roberta Smith,Ted Adler, , Robert Atkins, Ivan Barnett, Terry Barrett, Glen Brown, Garth Clark, Tanya Harrod, Elaine Henry, Dave Hickey, Janet Koplos, Paul Kotula, Donald Kuspit, and former Craft/Material Studies Chair, Howard Risatti.

• Kazue Taguchi (MFA) and Gabriel Craig (MFA) are in the show called "C3: Contemporary Craft Collaborations" at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft opening October 1, 2011. The curator is Gwynne Rukenbrod. Check out Kazue's work while she was at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency. Image #2 is hers

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) wrote the cover article for the November/ December 2010 issue of FiberArts magazine Manufacturing Interventions about the work of artist Margarita Cabrera. The issue will be out later this month.

• Andrea Donnelly (MFA) is in the group exhibit Cutting Edge: A Celebration of Fiber at the Textile Arts Center in Park Slope Brooklyn, NY through October 11.

• Cari Freno (MFA) is in the exhibit, Your Swimming Brain, at the Fleisher Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia through November 27. Cari will also be on a 10 week teaching artist residency through the Print Center in a Philadelphia High School.

• JD Garn (MFA) is in the exhibition, Faith as Art | Art as Faith, at The Brandenburg Galleries, Olivet Nazarene University

• Cari Freno (MFA) is in the two person exhibit,  I am Two with Nature, at the Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC through September 4.  Cari was in the  Freedom Sparks Video and Film Festival on July 2 at the Visual Voice Gallery in Montreal and  her piece, Kiss, is in the sixth group show at MMX gallery in Berlin through the end of the month.

• Hiromi Takizawa (MFA) has work at the group exhibit Transitions at the Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn.  September 16 - December 23. Check out these reviews of her work in The Glass Quarterly and How is this Glass?

• Travis Townsend (MFA) has a solo exhibit of his newest work,  New Things + Drawings, at Doppler PDX in Portland, Oregon in August.  The exhibit is a result of his two week residency at Oregon College of Art and Craft.

• Ryan Tanner (BFA) was a teaching assistant at the Corning Glass Museum for leading New Zealand glass artist, Ann Robinson.  The museum was so impressed with Ryan that they offered him a scholarship to study cameo engraving.

• Cindy Myron (MFA) Turns sculptures into jewelry and vice versa in her Vault 2010 exhibit at Quirk Gallery in Richmond , VA, September 2 - 25.

• Kathleen Kennedy (BFA) has her Dis-ease series featured in this past issue of Metalsmith Magazine in the article "From Amulet to Tumor: The Jewelry of Disease."

• Adam Welch (MFA) is a lecturer in Ceramics at Princeton University while still maintianing his job as Assistant Director of Greenwich House Pottery in NY.

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) and Ryan Gothrup (MFA) were in the group exhibit Hand + Made at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX this summer.

• Nathan Hansen (MFA), Gabriel Craig (MFA), and Amy Weiks (5th year student) will be included in Craft Texas 2010 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. The exhibition runs September 24 through December 30.

• Aaron McIntosh (MFA) is in the group exhibit, Missive,  at Russell Projects Gallery in Richmond, VA  through September 2. Check out his work on Beautiful/Decay.com. Aaron was also in Homegrown: Plant Zero Artists at artspace in and Irresistable Apparatus at 8 W Broad St in Richmond this summer.

• Nanda Soderberg (MFA) started Solos Glass a few years ago with his wife. Now they are regularly selling their glass pieces to Neiman Marcus and Barneys.

• Rebecca Murtaugh (MFA) had a solo exhibit, Temptations, at the Urban institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI this summer.

• Jackie Brown (MFA) finished an artist in residence at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC  and another residency at the Pajama Factory in July.

• Akiko Jackson (MFA)  has been invited as the Artist in Residence at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas from August 2010-July 2011.  During this time, she will be a full-time Instructor in the Ceramics area.  Akiko  has been invited as an Artist in Residence at Pottery Northwest in Seattle, Washington. Want to see more? Check out http://www.akikojackson.com

• (Sheal) Youn Seal Eum (MFA)  has her work, The Space between People, included in the exhibit Real People 2010, August 1 - September 26 at the Old Court House Arts Center in Woodstock, IL

• Mary Andrews (BFA) was in the June issue of Richmond's Belle Magazine in a an article covering her move back Richmond and her position working remotely for Etsy

• Susan Myers (BFA) has a a solo exhibition, Sleight of Hand,  at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, Delaware. September 7th - January 9, 2011

 

Summer 2010

• Susie Ganch and Sonya Clark are in Social Skin at the Anderson Gallery in Richmond through August
  
  
• Jack Wax will be in Board Boards, an exhibition of reclaimed wood from the Haystack stairs. The exhibit opens at the Haystack Community Center in Deer Isle, Maine.
  
  

• Debbie Quick will be showing her work at at meltem BIREY GALLERY, a division of FLOTSAM+JETSAM LLC, studio of art and design June-July at 244 Race St in Philadelphia. .

• Susan Iverson and Julie Pfaff have work in Pushing the Limits at artspace in Richmond, through June 20.
  
  
• Andrea Donnelly, (MFA) will have her work included in the 5th International Student Triennial to take place June 7-11 at the University of Marmara in Istanbul, Turkey. Andrea's piece, Quietly, Quietly is currently in Fiberart International 2010 in Pittsburgh, PA through August 22, 2010 then traveling to: Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, Rochester, New York (April 30 - July 3, 2011) and San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design, CA (October 13, 2011 - January 15, 2012). Locally, Andrea has her piece From Here in Pushing the Limits at artspace in Richmond, through June 20.

• (Sheal) Youn Seal Eum (MFA), Aaron McIntosh (MFA), and Andrea Donnelly (MFA) will be in Almost Famous at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond through June 20.
  

• Aaron McIntosh (MFA) curated Absent Gay Body at Capital One's Art Program. The exhibit showcases work that collectively seeks to redefine representation of gay ideas in a postmodern art world. The reception is Thursday, June 3, 4:45 п 6:00 p.m. 15000 Capital One Drive in Richmond.
  
  
• (Sheal) Youn Seal Eum (MFA) got a job as an offsite kinetic art researcher at HanSung University in Seoul, Korea. A position that allows her to stay in Virginia. One of the robots she has helped design with a team at Virginia Tech will be on the cover of Popular Science Magazine this August.

• Katie Hudnall (MFA) will have two of her pieces in Lark Books' 500 Cabinets scheduled to be in bookstores this summer. Katie will be an assistant professor in the furniture design program at Murray State University..
  
  

• Cari Freno (MFA) will be in a two person exhibit at Redux Contemporary Arts Center in Charleston, SC from August 6-September 4.

• Elizabeth Perkins (MFA) had an exhibition, "Home/Away", at North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland in May
  
  
• Sarah Warner (5th year) will be at the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park, Brooklyn, on June 5 & 6. This is a large and established fair with over 300 vendors. The fair runs from 11am-7pm both days. If you cannot make it, check out her work at www.sarahkathleenwarner.com

May 2010

• Mary Elkins, MFA candidate, has two pieces in the exhibit, “Crafting Place: Interpretations of Natural and Constructed Environments from the Kitchen to the Forest” at the Sugar Gallery May 6th-June 5th in Bentonville, Arkansas. The juror was Kenneth Trapp former Curator-in Charge of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. .
  
  

• Aaron McIntosh, MFA candidate, just got offered an Assistant Professor position at James Madison University.

• Roberto Celis, BFA candidate, has worked on getting a green roof on the Pollak Building. It will most likely be finished by the end of the fall semester. The project is sponsored by SGA, Facilities Management, and the School of Arts. This was one of Roberto's main projects in his role as Student Body Vice President. Roberto received the Elena Prentice Scholarship to go Haystack this summer. Roberto also received one of the leader & service awards from VCU.
  
  
• James Ryan Tanner, BFA candidate, has his work included in the Corning Museum of Glass magazine New Glass Review 31. The publication will be coming out this month.
  
  

• Anne Douglas Shaw, BFA candidate, and Sculpture student, Grace DuVal, premiered their recycled, furniture-inspired fashion collection, Eco Chic, at Can Can Brasserie, on Saturday May 1 to a standing room only crowd.

• Elizabeth Perkins (MFA) gave a lecture about her work on April 30 as part of the International Glass Artist Series at Caithness Horizons in Scotland as part of her residency at North Lands Creative Glass.
  
  
• Susan Myers (MFA) has a solo exhibition, Tributaries, at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee that runs until May 23rd. More information is available at www.metalmuseum.org

• Adam Welch (MFA) and Brooke Hine (MFA) are in a group exhibition,"Artaxis.org: An Evolving Independent Network of Artists", at the Gladys Wagner Gallery/Cheltenham Art Center in PA through May 15.
  

• Jackie Brown (MFA) has also been offered a solo show at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art for 2011 and is working on her solo show at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.
  
  
• Mary Fray (BFA) was the featured artist in Issue 3 of VCU's Ink Magazine that came out Feb 15. Mary also has work now on display at Quirk Gallery as part of Quirk Represents! And, Mary had a brooch in 1708's Home is Where the Art Is event, April 2-17th

• Katie Glusica (BFA) is currently a graduate student at SCAD. She just received an award for best thesis proposal.
  
  

• Susie Ganch and Natalya Pinchuk have work in the "Brooching the Subject: One of a Kind" exhibition at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans, LA. The exhibit opened last month and runs through July 15.

• Shay Church got great reviews in The Philadelphia Inquirer (scroll down) and The City Paper for his exhibition of grey whales that were up during the NCECA conference.
  
  
• Sonya Clark is in these four group exhibitions that open this month: Reflecting/Collecting a 1708 Gallery Satellite exhibition at the Linden Row Inn, Richmond, VA, May 1 - August 15; Hand + Made at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, May 15 - July 25; Social Skin at the Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, May 28 - August 1; and New Materiality - Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Craft at Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts, May 29 - February 6, 2011.

 

April 2010

• Meg Roberts (BFA) will have her work included in the "Alternate Selves" exhibition at the Lexington Arts League for April 23 - June 26, 2010

• Virginia Griswold (BFA) is in "Objectified" at the Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY through April 17, a group show of artists working with or whose work is about objects. It is curated by David Terry, Director of the NYFA fellowship program, and artist Matthew Delegat.
  

• Adam Welch (MFA) is in a group exhibition,"Artaxis.org: An Evolving Independent Network of Artists", at the Gladys Wagner Gallery/Cheltenham Art Center in PA through May 15. Adam also has a 5 page article/review in Ceramics Art and Perception Issue #79 titled "The Margins A Theory of Resistance in Contemporary Ceramics".
  
  
• Kazue Taguchi (MFA) moves to Paris this month to begin her one year artist in residence program at Cite Internationale des Arts Paris

• Keith Mendak (MFA) has his work for sale at The Art Institute of Chicago's Museum shop.
  
  

• Amy Weiks (5th year student) participated in Exhibition in Motion with her piece Lick no.1 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on March 11th.

• Brooke Hine (MFA) was recently named as one of five artists to watch in "Philadelphia Magazine
  
  
• Katie Laub (BFA) was accepted into RISD's Glass MFA program with a full scholarship.
  
  

• Gian Pierotti (MFA candidate) is in the Ambling exhibition at ADA Gallery in Richmond, VA

• Hiromi Takazawi (MFA candidate) will be an artist assistant for Alyson Schotz and a teaching assistant for Susan Clark at Pilchuck School of Glass this summer. Also, Hiromi just received a grant to curate a show in Bergen, Norway this fall.
  
  
• Anne Shaw (BFA candidate) was offered a management position at the Richmond Anthropologie.

• Amanda Duncan (BFA candidate) was offered a position at Hoover & Strong
  

• Jack Wax had work chosen for purchase and donation to a museum from The American Academy of Arts & Letters Exhibition in NY by a committee that included these well-known artists in the field: William Bailey, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, Jane Freilicher, Judy Pfaff, Martin Puryear, Robert Ryman, and Ursula von Rydingsvard. Jack is also in the group exhibition "Departure: Models and Drawings" at the Flippo Gallery on the campus of Randolph-Macon College from April 9 through June 4, 2010 along with artists Kendall Buster, Soo Sunny Park, and Tara Donovan.
  
  
• Matt Szosz will give a gallery talk on his work at the FAB Gallery on Friday, April 2 at 6pm in conjunction with his exhibit, Positive Pressure, at the FAB Gallery, RVA

• Debbie Quick will have work in the "Temples" group exhibit of Tyler School of Art alumni and faculty at Merz Hall in Philadelphia in conjunction with NCECA opening April 1.
  
  

• Julie Pfaff is in an exhibition called "Four Women Working in Fiber" in the Portlock Galleries in Chesapeake, VA that is up until April 11.

• Want to learn more about Jason Hackett's work? Check out this blog.
  
  
• Sonya Clark has work along with the work of three other Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellows at Senator Mark Warner's office in DC through July. Sonya is also in these three exhibits: Wearable/Unwearable at the VisArts Center in Rockville, MD; The Medium is the Message at PSA in Fish Creek, WI; and across the ocean at Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution at the Harley Gallery in Worksop, UK. Sonya will present at the symposium a Complex Weave at the Center for Arts Gallery at Towson University in Maryland, April 9 and will be giving a lecture on work that uses hair at the Visual arts Center in Richmond at 1pm in April 24.

March 2010

• In the aftermath of the destruction in Haiti, advanced level jewelry/metal students from the VCU Department of Craft/Material Studies raised over $3500 by organizing a jewelry sale and exhibit What is Your Heart Made of? and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross. The exhibit was hosted at Quirk Gallery February 11th-13t

• Nathan Hansen (MFA candidate) won 1st place at the Sleight of Hand II exhibition at Gallery 5 in Richmond.
  

• Gian Pierotti (MFA candidate) will have his work included in Scope New York through ADA Gallery. Scope takes place March 3-7..
  
  
• Brooke Hine (MFA) has a solo exhibit, "In-Motion", up through May 3rd at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 South 18th Street, Philadelphia, PA. see: http://www.philartalliance.org/ Brooke was in the group exhibit 12 CFEVA Artists at Middlesex County College last month in Edison, NJ. Brooke is also in the Artaxis.org artists @ NCECA from Mar 28- May 15, at the Cheltenham Art Center in Cheltenham, PA. Along with exhibiting her work, Brooke has also been an active curator. She recently, curated two shows: "Emergence" at Bahdeebahdu, 1522 N. American Street, Philadelphia which features artwork in clay, fiber, and prints from March 11 to April 3 and "Merging Paths in Clay" from March 29th to April 16th at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, 1521 Locust Street, Philadelphia

• Elizabeth Perkins (MFA) was just awarded an artist in residence at North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland.
  
  

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) got on his soapbox and preached the benefits of craft on the streets of Richmond. Here's the video: http://crafthaus.ning.com/video/the-gospel-according-to-craft Gabriel is showing his video work at in the Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century show at the Miami University of Ohio through July 10.

• Heath Matysek-Snyder (MFA) has been appointed the Faculty Associate Wood/Furniture Design Program at UW-Madison. For three years he's in charge of the program there. Also, along with Katie Hudnall (MFA), Heath is in a traveling exhibition called STUDIO FURNITURE: The Next Generation, It opened in Minneapolis, travels to UW in Madison through March and then goes to Herron School of Art in Indianapolis until May.
  
  
• Matt Isaacson (MFA) was recently hired by St. Louis Community College as the Ceramics Coordinator/ Instructor.
  
  

• Juror of the New Waves exhibit at Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Steven Matijcio of the South Eastern Center for Contmporary Art, gave honorable mentions to Ryan Gothrup (MFA) and Aaron MacIntosh (MFA).

• Susana Almuiña (MFA) has just launched a new website: http://www.susanaalmuina.com
  
  
• Kazue Taguchi (MFA) is in a two person exhibit with Ahn Jun at PS122 gallery in New York at 150 First Ave NY NY 10009. The show runs through March 7

• Gabriel Craig (MFA), Amy Weiks (5th year student) and Arthur Hash (BFA) are in a show called "Not the Family Jewels" at Gallery 1724, Houston, TX, through March 14, 2010
  

• Annie Campbell (BFA) just finished a website. Check it out at anniebcampbell.com
  
  
• Travis Townsend (MFA) will present his work and give a workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department Colloquium March 9-11. Travis also had two person exhibit at the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio January 15- February 20, 2010

• Jack Wax will be exhibiting 6 pieces in this year's Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts exhibition at the American Academy of Arts in NYC which begins in March and ends in April. This group show is of works by approximately thirty contemporary artists who are candidates for the Academy's art awards and purchase program..
  
  

• Shay Church will be in two shows while the NCECA conference is happening in Philadelphia from March 31- April 3. One will be at the Dalet Gallery, 141 N. 2nd Street and the other at the University of the Arts, 320 S. Broad Street..

• Natalya Pinchuk has her credit card series is in a show called "Not the Family Jewels" at Gallery 1724, Houston, TX, through March 14, 2010.
  
  
• Sonya Clark was a Visiting Artist at Grand Valley State University and lectured at the UICA (Urban Institute for Creative Arts) in Michigan in February. Sonya also lectured at Purdue University as part of their Dr. Barbara Walker Visiting Artist Series last month. Sonya will be in the group exhibit through May 24, "Wearing Spirit, at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York NY. The exhibit opens March 11th..

February 2010

• Robin Kranitzky (BFA) and her collaborative partner Kim Overstreet have an exhibit of their work at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond through March 21. The exhibit, Fragments of Our Imagination: Narrative Jewelry by the Collaborative Partnership of Kranitzky & Overstreet, surveys the creations of a pair of Richmond artists.
  
  
• Take a look at this video of Karl Burkheimer (MFA) installing and discussing his work at Call and Response exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR. Karl is an associate professor and the head of the wood department at the Oregon College of Art and Craft.

• The New Waves 2010 exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach runs February 5-March 28 and several of our alumni, Ryan Gothrup (MFA), Akiko Jackson (MFA), and Sarah Mizer (MFA), and current students (see student section below) are included.
  

• Katie Hudnall (MFA) got rave reviews for her work in the Minneapolis Star Tribune for her work in the exhibition, "Studio Furniture: The Next Generation" at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
  
  
• Elizabeth Perkins (MFA) will be the featured shop artist at Quirk Gallery in Richmond, Be Mine, Funny Valentine, February 4-27

• Debbie Quick (MFA) will be the featured Vault artist at Quirk Gallery in Richmond, My Country Loves me and Someday I'll be President, February 4-27
  
  

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) got on his soapbox and preached the benefits of craft on the streets of Richmond. Here's the video: http://crafthaus.ning.com/video/the-gospel-according-to-craft Gabriel is showing his video work at in the Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century show at the Miami University of Ohio through July 10.

• Linda Laino (MFA) has a solo exhibit, Ordinary Earth, at Art Space in Richmond, VA that runs through February 21.
  
  
• Jacquelyn Walther (BFA) and Nathalie David (BFA) are in the "Sleight of Hand II" exhibit at Gallery 5 in Richmond that opens this Friday, February 5 and runs through February 2
  
  

• Jackie Brown (MFA) will be an Open Studio Artist at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC. If you are in NYC, she'll be there on Tuesdays through May.

• Sarah Holden (BFA) has work in "Charmed" at the Society of Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh through March. Sarah also has work included in the "2010 National Juried Exhibition: Textural Patois" at the Allen Priebe Gallery in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The show runs from February 18th until March 7t
  
  
• Amy Weiks (5th year student) has a piece 'Lick no.1' is going to be included in Exhibition in Motion, curated by Angela Gleason. It will take place at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in conjunction with the SNAG conference in March. Fashion students from Houston Community College will be making custom bustiers for each piece.

• Leilani Gonzales, BFA candidate, received a $6000 VMFA Fellowship.
  

• Jacob Sorenson, MFA candidate, will be in the exhibit, "Nourish and Sustain," at the Mary Lou Zeek gallery in Salem, Oregon in February
  
  
• The New Waves 2010 exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia runs February 5-March 28. Two of our students, MFA candidates, Mary Elkins and Aaron McIntosh, and alumni (see alumni section above) are included.

• Aaron McIntosh, MFA candidate also won first prize ($500) in the Punch Gallery International Juried exhibition in Seattle. The show was juried by Marisa C. Sánchez, curator of Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum.
  
  

• Courtney Dodd, MFA candidate, is in the "All in the Approach: Abstract, Allegorical, Analytical" exhibit at the Cabarrus Arts Council in Concord, NC through March 13..

• Nathan Hansen, MFA candidate, has two pieces, Odometer and Bender in the "Sleight of Hand II" exhibit at Gallery 5 in Richmond. It will open Friday, Feb 5. If you would like to see more of Nathan's work, check out his website: www.nathanhansen.net
  
  
• Eum Youn Seal, MFA candidate, has her work in the group exhibit, No Boundaries, in conjunction with the Society of North American Goldsmiths Annual conference. The exhibit is up through March 13 and will take place at The Jung Center in collaboration with The Glassell School in Houston, TX.

January 2010

• Alissa Guzman (MFA) continues writing articles on artists. Check out her article on Maya Lin and her interview with Bill Viola in Whitehot Magazine

• Brooke Hine (MFA) is curating an exhibition during both Symposiums-- NCECA and Philagrafika 2010. The exhibition will showcase both ceramics and prints during the months of March and April. Bahdeebahdu is a space located just North of the Crane(Arts) building in Philadelphia. Check it out: http://bahdeebahdu.com/contact/
  

• Fiona Ross (MFA) has a solo exhibition, Walking the Parallels to Terminus, at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University. The exhibit runs through January 30.
  
  
• Gabriel Craig (MFA) has been selected as a speaker for the 2010 Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference (March 10-13, 2010) which will be held in Houston, TX. The subject of his talk will be Altruism, Activism, and the Moral Imperative in Craft which will build on his thesis work completed while at VCU!

• Katie Hudnall (MFA) will be at a residency at Anderson Ranch in the Spring 2010. This summer she's been invited to be a part of the Emma Lake International Collaborative in Canada. Check out the article about her Windgate residency and exhibition: http://www.news.wisc.edu/17459 Another article appeared about her in Woodworkers Journal
  
  

• Gabriel Craig (MFA) got on his soapbox and preached the benefits of craft on the streets of Richmond. Here's the video: http://crafthaus.ning.com/video/the-gospel-according-to-craft Gabriel is showing his video work at in the Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century show at the Miami University of Ohio through July 10.

• Kazue Taguchi (MFA) was in the "Outrageous Fortune" exhibit with Cece Cole, Gabriela Galvan, Emily Hall and Rachel Hayes which opened December 12 at 103 Reade St., #2, New York, NY. Kazue is also in is in the group exhibit, New Year: New Work at the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA through February 20
  
  
• Ann Bradshaw (MFA) will have a solo exhibition, Sane Enough, at Quirk Gallery in Richmond opening January 7. She will give an artist's talk January 20th @ noon.
  
  

• Nicole Bauman (MFA) has a piece of her artwork in the December issue of RHOME magazine. Nicole is also in a group show in Nashville, TN opening January 16 at the Scarritt Bennett Center, "Talcum Fables.".

• MFA candidate, Jacob Sorenson, will have work exhibited at the Capitol One Headquarters in Richmond, VA from late January through April.
  
  
• MFA candidates, Hiromi Takizawa and Aaron McIntosh were each granted a Thesis Dissertation award from the VCU Graduate School.

• Gian Pierotti, MFA candidate, received the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Graduate Student Award for $4000.
  

• Aaron McIntosh, MFA candidate, won first prize ($500) in the Punch Gallery International Juried exhibition in Seattle. The show was juried by Marisa C. Sánchez, curator of Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum. Aaron is also in a group exhibit at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA called Say Love that opens this Friday.
  
  
• Craft/Material Studies student and BFA candidate, Anne Douglas Shaw was awarded an $1800 Undergraduate Research Grant in collaboration with Sculpture + Extended Media student, Grace Johnston. In this collaborative project, the two will marry their love affair with fabric in a project called Eco-Chic: Recycled Fashion. The Faculty Mentor is Professor Susan Iverson of Craft/Material Studies

• Uncommon Denominator (an exhibit of undergraduate students including Jessica Barton, Casie Bennett, Jennifer Cox, Amanda Duncan, William Miller, Jill Rich, Robert Metzler, Anne Shaw, Emily Wright, Devin Trom, and Danielle Stevens) at ArtSpace in Richmond at Plant Zero in the Main Gallery through January 17th. "This exhibition signifies the diversity of work within Craft media. While the show is an amalgamation of media and technique, the deference to the hand is our unifying factor."
  
  

• Natalya Pinchuk is in the 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition in the Downtown Gallery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN from January 14 – February 20.

• Jack Wax is in the group exhibit, New Year: New Work at the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA through February 20. Jack also just received a $20,000 prize from the Ib Hendriksen's Fund! The foundation's main purpose is to support education and training in science, industry, commerce, and crafts.
  
  
• Sonya Clark is in the Taking Time traveling exhibit at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, Scotland from January 18 to March 22.

 

December 2009

• Meg Roberts (BFA) has two pieces included in Garth Johnson's "1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse" book which came out November 1st. From January 8- February 11th she has her first solo show at the Appalachian Center for Craft featuring my collapsible meditative spaces. Meg also has a new website megjroberts.com
  

• Coefficiency of Expansion, an exhibit of advanced glassworking students is up through December 1 at the Petersburg Area Art League in Petersburg, VA
  
  
• Adrian Blackstock, MFA candidate, will be in BUSWATER on the Boulevard which opens Friday, December 4 at 6:00pm at 1520 Kanawha Boulevard E. Charleston, WV.

• Hiromi Takazawi, MFA candidate, had a solo show in at the prestigious Heller Gallery in NYC that ran from October 30 - November 29.
  
  
• Courtney Dodd, MFA candidate, will be included in the "All in the Approach" exhibit Jan 19 – Mar 13, 2010 at Arts Council Galleries in Concord, NC put on by the Cabarrus Arts Council.

• Cari Freno (MFA) is in the I Don't Watch the Internet exhibit at the Fleischer/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia which runs December 10-January 16
  

• Katie Hudnall (MFA) has her first solo show opening soon, An Indirect Path, which opens December 5 at the Art Loft Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin.
  
  
• Kazue Taguchi (MFA) is in a two-person show at PS122 gallery, NYC from January 30 through February 21 http://www.ps122gallery.org/gallery.php Kazue is also an Artist in Residence at the Newark Museum, NJ from January 4 through February 10 http://www.newarkmuseum.org.

• Erin Williams (MFA) has work in The Little Deaths exhibit at Shadow Space Gallery in Philadelphia which runs from December 4 through the end of January.
  
  

• Fiona Ross (MFA) has an upcoming solo show at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA that opens January, 2010

• Natalya Pinchuk will be in Transmutations: Material Reborn at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX, January 16 through March 21 and in the 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition at the Downtown Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN January16- February 20
  
  
• Sonya Clark is in Black at the DCAC gallery in Washington, DC which is up through January 10.

November 2009

• Gabriel Craig (MFA 2009) will be speaking at VCU's 17th annual on Architectural History and the Decorative Arts, Friday November 13th at the Virginia Historical Society. He will be presenting his research on early American Arts & Crafts wrought ironwork, which was funded by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. Gabriel was also a visiting artist at the Savannah College of Art and Design November 5th and 6th, and participated concurrently in the Making Meaning in the Marketplace symposia sponsored by the American Craft Council.
  
  
• Also this weekend, on November 13 from 6-10 several alumni from VCU are involved in the Open Studios at Lab 307 at 307 N 26th Street. From our department: Akiko Jackson (MFA), Katie Hudnall (MFA), Elizabeth Perkins (MFA), Aaron Stubbs (MFA 2005), and Sayaka Suzuki (MFA 2005).

• Brooke Hine (MFA 2004) also received a bunch of great press recently. Her installation "Allogamy" was in the current issue of Philly HOME Magazine. Eileen Tognini curated a Salon exhibition that included Brooke's work entitled, Insitu: 628, in April 2009. Check out this article on Eileen's website http://eileentognini.com/pages/house.html
  Other articles recent on Brooke: "House as Art: If Walls Could Talk" by Caroline Tiger, American Style Magazine and "Artists in Residence", Philadelphia Home Magazine, Fall 2009. Brooke was also in CfEVA Exchange at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts from September 25 - November 8
  
  
• Caitie Sellers (BFA 2007) is in Sparkle Plenty at Quirk in Richmond, VA through December 23.

• Elaine Butcher (BFA 2009) has work at an exhibit at the Studio Gallery at Jason McLeod in Charlottesville, VA through November 16. She also has a new website: www.elainerb.com
  

• Kent Perdue (BFA 2009) was also included in the exhibition Generously Odd: Craft Now. This exhibition attempts to chronicle the unique territory currently being examined by today’s avant-garde craft artists. Travis S. Townsend (MFA 2001) curated the exhibition. As previously reported, several other alumni are in the exhibit as well: Cynthia Myron (MFA 2004), Debbie Quick (MFA 2006), Adam Welch (MFA 2003), and Lizzie Perkins (MFA 2004)
  
  
• Amy Weiks (5th year student): Five pieces from her 'Lick', 'Ritual', and 'Lines of Communication' Series will be included in 'Topeka Competition 29', a national juried 3-D exhibition. The exhibition was juried by Joyce Jablonski and will take place at the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery at the Topeka & Shawnee Public Library in Topeka Kansas Nov 6 - Dec 30, 2009.

• Katie Hudnall (MFA 2005) and Tina Boy (BFA 2007) are in an exhibition at Arrowmont titled, Woman in Wood in Tennessee. Katie Hudnall (MFA 2005) and Travis Townsend (MFA 2003) have gotten some good press recently for their work. Check it out http://postgazette.com and http://www.pittnews.com. Katie Hudnall (MFA 2005) gave an artist presentation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison called "Subversive Joinery: Illustrating in Three Dimensions" as a part of the Colloquium Series.
  
  
• Adam Welch (MFA 2003), Elizabeth Perkins (MFA 2004), and several other alumni as well as Susan Iverson (faculty) and Bill Hammersley (faculty) are in an exhibit co-curated by Howard Risatti (former chair) and Steven Glass of craft work for exclusive showing in the Sawhill Gallery at James Madison University. The exhibit runs through December 4.

• Aaron McIntosh and Andrea Donnelly, MFA 2010 candidates, have been selected by the editors of Fiberarts magazine to appear in the annual Student Showcase feature for the November/December 2009 issue

• Andrea Donnelly, MFA 2010 candidate, presented on a panel called Philanthropy: the Impact of Scholarships at SOFA Chicago last weekend. She talked about her experience as a winners of the Windgate Fellowship. Andrea also had her piece, Systems Meditation #7 featured in the November/December issue of R.Home magazine. The entire Systems Meditation Series will be on the R.Home website.

• Aaron McIntosh, MFA 2010 candidate, was recently accepted into the Punch Gallery International Juried exhibition in Seattle. He is 1 of 9 artists selected from over 300 who applied. The show was juried by Marisa C. Sánchez, curator of Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum. It runs December 4 - January 2. Aaron also has a new website: www.aaronmcintosh.com
  
  
• Eum Younseal (Sheal) MFA 2010 candidate, has her 'Over the Rainbow' piece is in the Riverview Juried Art Show in Lynchburg, VA. The show opened November 4th

• Jack Wax (faculty) received a 45,000 DKr (approx. $9000 USD) "Ole Haslunds Kunstnerfond Grant." It is an unsolicited grant from a private foundation in Kobenhavn, Denmark. Jack was honored for his work as a visiting artists @ The Bornholm Skolan.
  

• Natalya Pinchuk (faculty) is in Arts Santa Monica in Barcelona, Spain from December 15 December 2009 through January 10 2010. Natalya's project, Ugly Objects: AMSTERDAM, will be up at Centrale Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands December and January. Natalya's work was also at SOFA Chicago last weekend with Charon Kransen Arts.o.
  
  
• Sonya Clark (chair) will be in Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, at Real Arts Way Gallery in Hartford, CT Nov. 14 through March 14. Check out the review: Hartford Courant. See the listing in the New York Times

October 2009

• Andrea Donnelly (MFA 2010 candidate) won First Prize at the Fiber Artistry: Journey of the Imagination exhibition in Duluth, Georgia
  
  
• Eum Youn Seal (Sheal), (MFA 210 candidate) was written about in a review by Michael O'Sullivan in the Washington Post of the Options exhibition curated by curator Anne Collins Goodyear of the National Portrait Gallery

• Olivia Desoria (BFA 2009 candidate) wrote: "I have been in Qatar for a month now and have been busy busy busy researching the history and traditions of this place...I posted a blog about my pearl diving research in the Gulf. For those of you that are interested: http://desoriadesign.blogspot.com/

• Check out the OCT/NOV issue of American Craft Magazine. The cover article, The Transgressions of Lauren Kalman, was written by Gabriel Craig (MFA 2009). Also, Nanda Sodeberg's (MFA 2007) company, Solos Glass, was featured. Gabriel Craig (MFA 2009) was recently hired as an adjunct faculty member in Metals at Houston Community College, the largest public school in Texas.

• Adam Welch (MFA 2003) gave the keynote lecture at the conference called Figuration to Fragmentation as well as an artist lecture the following day. He also composed a catalog essay for the exhibitions that were the centerpiece of the conference. All of this was held the University of Kentucky this month. Adam had work in the Hightstown New Jersey Harvest Fair on October 10th. Adam also wrote a 9-page article on a theory of ceramics and criticism, "The Ceramic Sphere: Newer Ceramics Criticism and the Expanding Field" in the newest issue of Ceramics Art & Perception no. 77 p. 48-56.

• Dave Williamson (MFA 1976) and Roberta Williamson (MFA 1976), who have made jewelery that has been collected by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Robin Williams, Bill Murray, Warren Buffett, and Carol Burnett are in the Peabody Award winning PBS documentary Craft in America

• Cynthia Myron (MFA 2004), Debbie Quick (MFA 2006), Adam Welch (MFA 2003), and Lizzie Perkins (MFA 2004) are included in Generously Odd: Craft Now. This exhibition attempts to chronicle the unique territory currently being examined by today’s avant-garde craft artists. While all craft media are included, the exhibition will place emphasis on works that explore abundant decoration, obsessive techniques, and peculiar narratives or concepts. Travis S. Townsend (MFA 2001) curated the exhibition.

• Lizzie Perkins (MFA 2004) was juried into the Elder Gallery exhibition “Art of Fine Craft: National Juried Exhibition” which was held in conjunction with the Art of Fine Craft Conference

• Christina Boy (BFA 2007) exhibited her work at the Core Show at Penland in North Carolina. The opening was October 9. For more of Tina's updates check out her website

• Cari Freno (MFA 2009) was in the Feed show at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA and her work was reviewed in Art Papers, the September/October issue.

• Akiko Jackson (MFA 2009) led a group discussion on "The Need for Camaraderie in Community and Public Involvement in the Arts" at Sydney College of the Arts in Australia in October.
  Akiko will also be in "The Object: Found, Multiplied, Manipulated" at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, University of Mary Washington, from October 23 - December 4, 2009.
  

• Dana Dabney (BFA) just got hired to be the new art teacher at Varina High School in Henrico County. She will be teaching their crafts class there.

• Keith Mendak (MFA 2009) got offered a job to teach Musical and Theatrical Performance and English in Seoul, Korea through a group called Hello Kid Actor.

• Kazue Taguchi (MFA 2007) worked as an Artist Assistant for Czech artist, Jan Ambruz, at Pilchuck.

• Jackie Brown (MFA 2008) has work at the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art's 6th Annual International Juried Exhibition which runs October 16th - November 13th in Long Branch, NJ.

• Professor Susan Iverson had her work included in the Conversations exhibit at the SAS Gallery in Sewanee, Tennessee which ran from August 22-September 30. Susan received an award from the Handweavers Guild of America for her work exhibited in Woven Visions at the Anderson Arts Center in Anderson, South Carolina until October 16.

• Professor Susie Ganch has work in the exhibit and film A Soul's Journey: Inside the Creative Process. The exhibit is up at the Art Museum of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina from October 11- January 8.

• Professor Natalya Pinchuk is in the traveling exhibit, 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, which was at the Soma Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea this summer and has now traveled to the University of Mississippi Museum and will be there through November 1, 2009. Natalya was also in the travelling exhibit, the Garbage Pin Project this summer at the Silke&the Gallery in Belgium, Antwerp over the summer. She is also in Touch in Los Angeles, CA which opens this month and runs until November 14. Natalya's work was in two books recently: 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs. New York: Lark Books and Jewellery Using Textiles Techniques: Methods and Techniques, London: A&C Black.

• Professor Sonya Clark is in "The Mansion Project" exhibit at Rutgers University, Newark through November 11. I was also in "A Complex Weave" at the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers University, Camden through December 12. She was invited to exhibit at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2009 in Cheongju, Korea through November 1 and "Taking Time" at the Birmingham Museum in England through January 3, 2010. Clark gave the Keynote Address: The Art of Fine Craft Biennial Conference at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, NE earlier this month. She will also be a speaker at the Creating A New Craft Culture, American Craft Council Conference this month. And on October 23 will be a speaker at the Maryland Institute College of Art conference, Transformations: New Directions in Black Art
  

September 2009

• Matt Isaacson (MFA 2008) and Susana Almuina (MFA 2009) made it into the $250,000 ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, MI and will be showing at the Old Federal Building affiliated with the UICA! Here is the link to the info http://www.artprize

• Matthew Isaacson (MFA 2008) was also a teaching assistant at Pilchuck for Rob Stern in August. He was mentioned Ceramics Monthly for the exhibition that he curated Columbus State University earlier this year.

• Arthur Hash (BFA 2001) was in the Stimulus Project at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA in June in which all of the works were less than $500.

• Lizzie Perkins (MFA 2004) was juried into the Art of Fine Craft exhibition in the Elder Gallery at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Oct. 1-Nov. 8.

• Katie Hudnall (MFA 2005) recently received one of the Honorable Mentions for the Raphael Prize and Travis Townsend, MFA, got the Merit Award from the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA.

• Meg Roberts (BFA 2009) was also in a show at One Tribe in Richmond in July.

• Kent Perdue (BFA 2009) has been busy on his Windgate Fellowship and at his residency at Arrowmont. Check out his blog to see what he's been up to: http://kentperdue.blogspot.com/. Kent was recently in the press about his Windgate and Residency too: http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/lifestyles/features/article/form_and_function/18541/

• Jackie Brown (MFA 2008) will be teaching in sculpture at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA this fall and was recently offered a solo exhibition at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.

• Alissa Davis (MFA 2008) published a review in Whitehot on Roxy Paine. Check it out http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/roxy-paine-on-met-roof/1889

• Cari Freno (MFA 2009) just launched new website. Check it out www.carifreno.com 
  
  
• Younseal Eum (MFA 2010 candidate) has had her work selected for the OPTIONS 2009 biennial exhibition at one of DC’s most established contemporary art galleries, Conner Contemporary Art, located at 1358-60 FLORIDA AVE, NE - WASHINGTON DC 20002. The exhibition dates: September 17 – October 31.

• Aaron McIntosh (MFA 2010 candidate) will be doing a paper quilting demonstration with Etsy Labs at the Museum of Arts & Design, NYC, Aug. 27, 2009. Aaron will be exhibiting in "Fiber Artistry: Journey of the Imagination" at the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth, GA, September 24 – October 26. Aaron received a full scholarship to attend the 2009 American Craft Council Conference, Creating a New Craft Culture, Oct. 15 -18.

• Aaron McIntosh and Sarah Turner (MFA 2010 candidates) were juried into the Art of Fine Craft exhibition in the Elder Gallery at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Oct. 1-Nov. 8.

• Hiromi Takizawa (MFA 2010 candidate) exhibited June 25 – August 23 at Robert Lehman Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, http://www.urbanglass.org/
  Hiromi has also been invited to have a "one-person" exhibition in NYC The Heller Gallery opening October 29. Hiromi will also be in a group show, Young & Loving (Ung og Lovende), in Bergen, Norway of 5 international contemporary glass artists at S12 Galleri og Verksted DA. The exhibit opens in September. Check out the details at http://www.s12.no/

• Our incoming 2011 MFA candidates were busy in the months before they officially joined us:
  Mary Price was in the St. Tammany Art Association Summer Show Juried Exhibition in Covington, Louisiana which was on view July 11- August 8, and was juried by Greeley Myatt.
  Courtney Dodd won "Best in Show" and "Third Place" for two separate pieces at the Spring Into Arts, juried show, in North Carolina.
  Adrian Blackstock was in three exhibits this summer in Charleston, WV including one at West Virginia chapter of the Feminist Art Project and another at Buswater on the Boulevard.
  Gian Pierotti was in the NCECA 2009 juried student show at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Two pieces where accepted one piece made the poster. Just under 300 applicants applied with only 26 accepted into the exhibit.
  

• Former faculty member, Lydia Thompson has taken a job as Head of the Department of Art at Mississippi State University.

• Shay Church who has joined us this year in Ceramics, will also be included in the $250,000 ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, MI. http://www.artprize.org/artist/id/1925  Check out this recent article on his work: http://www.mlive.com

• Jason Hackett (MFA 2005) has been selected to exhibit in the IX Bienal Internacional de Cerâmica Artística de Aveiro 2009, Portugal from 3 October to 15 November 2009 at the Museum of Aveiro

• Debbie Quick (MFA 2006) has been juried into artaxis.org, a juried site for ceramics artists. She is in the great company many fantastic clay artists, such as Adelaide Paul, Jeanne Quinn, Paul Sacardiz, and Ayumi Horie, all of whom have been visiting artists at VCU.

• Susie Ganch and Natalya Pinchuk (faculty) are in the Enamel Show at Velvet DaVinci in San Francisco which runs August 5 - September 6. The exhibit celebrates the publication of 500 Enameled Objects by Lark Books and is held in conjunction with The Enamelist Society Conference 2009. Also, Susie Ganch and Natalya Pinchuk were in the Stimulus Project at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA in June in which all of the works are less than $500.

• Susie Ganch (faculty), has a two film screenings of “Radical Jewelry Makeover: a traveling community mining and recycling project” (produced and directed by Dana Richardson and Sarah Zentz.) The first screening will take place outdoors at Binn’s Park in Lancaster, PA on September 4 at 8pm. The second screening will take place at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC for the museum’s “Jewelry Study Day” on September 12 at noon. Radical Jewelry Makeover (RJM) is a community mining and recycling project that has been traveling since 2007 and is directed by Susie Ganch and Christina Miller. So far RJM projects have taken place in Richmond,VA, Lancaster, PA, San Francisco, CA, Penland, NC, and the next edition will be in Australia (summer 2010.)

• Sonya Clark (chair), was one of eight women from across the state of Virginia recognized as an Outstanding Woman in the Arts by the Virginia Commission on the Arts. An article on her work written by Lowery Stokes Sims, curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC is in the September/October issue of Fiberarts Magazine, "The Currency of Craft". Reviews of the group exhibit she's in, Dress Codes: Clothing as Metaphor, at the Katonah Musuem of Art are in Lower Hudson Journal news - West Harrison, NY and the New York Times

Summer 2009

• Recent MFA alumni, Toshi Tanaka, Ryan Gothrup, and Keith Mendak, are in th Almost Famous exhibit at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA June 26 - August 15.
  
  
• Younseal Eum, MFA candidate 2010, has been accepted into OPTIONS 2009 which will be taking place in one of DC’s most established contemporary art galleries, Conner Contemporary Art, located at 1358-60 FLORIDA AVE, NE - WASHINGTON DC 20002. The exhibition dates are set for September 17 – October 31, 2009. Anne Collins Goodyear, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, is the curator.

• Andrea Donnelly, MFA candidate 2010, had her piece Holding In selected for the Radius 250 exhibit at Artspace in Richmond. It runs June 26 through August 23.
  
  
• Hiromi Takizawa, MFA candidate 2010, has her first solo exhibition at The Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York, June 26 - August 23, 2009. See http://www.urbanglass.org/

• Recent MFA recipients, Gabriel Craig and Jon Sutter will present at The 17th Symposium on Architectural History and the Decorative Arts which will take place on Friday, November 13th, under the title of "Traditions--I." It's cosponsored by a dozen distinguished institutions (VMFA, Virginia Historical Society, etc.) and last fall attracted about 400 souls. This year, 2 of the 8 speakers come from Craft/Material Studies. Gabriel will speak in a session on ironwork, and Jon will speak in a session on furniture.
  

• Olivia de Soria, BFA candidate 2010, just received a $5,000 Gilman Scholarship to study abroad in Qatar
  
  
• Susie Ganch, professor, has her Radical Jewelry Makeover project in the press again. This time in the American Craft. See http://www.americancraftmag.org/article.php?id=8009

• Jason Hackett, MFA 2005 and adjunct professor, lectured on his making and use of molds and the strategies used for employing cast parts in his work at Portland Community College in Oregon earlier this summer
  
  
• Susan Iverson, professor, was in a group show,"Conversations", at the Wellington B. Gray Gallery at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, June 8-30, 2009

• Penland School of Craft in North Carolina was graced with the presence of many VCU Craft/Material Studies folks as teachers. This summer Kiara Pelissier, MFA 2006, taught Introduction to Furnace Working in Glass and was assisted by Keith Mendak, MFA 2009. In metals, C. James Meyer, Emeritus Professor, taught Found Object as Raw Material; Susie Ganch, professor, conducted the Radical Jewelry Makeover with Christina Miller and assistance from Gabriel Craig, MFA 2009; and Arthur Hash, BFA 2001, taught a class called Upcycling.

• Sonya Clark, professor, is in the exhibit Illinois. The exhibit is at the MCAC in Bloomington from June 26 - August 8. Sonya will also be presenting at a conference a Haystack called Making: Past, Present and Future in Deer Isle, Maine in July. Later in July she will be in Wisconsin on a two-week Artist Residency at Edenfred. Recently, a book called Choosing Craft was published and included an article she wrote.
  

• A Busy Bee Sat on a Bushel of Blossoms a Drawing Installation by Nicole Baumann, MFA at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will be on view from May 9 – July 5 in Ginter Gallery II http://www.vmagazineforwomen.com/may09/nicolebaumann.html
  
  
• Travis Townsend, MFA,  was awarded the Virginia A. Groot foundation grant again this year.  Travis will have work at  Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio later this year and was also published in Lark Books's 500 Tables.

• Check out this recent review of recent MFA, Cari Freno's work. Cari will also be exhibiting at 1708 Gallery in FEED2009: a Juried Biennial, in Richmond, VA. The opening is this Friday,  June 5th, 7- 9 and the exhibit runs through July 11. The jurors were Ashley Kistler from the Anderson Gallery and Mark Sloan of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art.
  

• The fiber area  in our department, thanks to  our own Susan Iverson, got some nice recognition from New York Times critic Roberta Smith. Check it out on page two.
  
  
• MFA alumna, Lizzie Perkins,  and  instructor, Emilio Santini,  were both mentioned in a review in the Daily Press  Lizzie  also had her work, Ida, chosen for the BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass exhibition sponsored by Steuben Glass.  from July 10-October 10 at the OSU Urban Arts Space and Hawk Galleries in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Afterward, select works from the BIGG exhibition will travel to SOFA Chicago 2009 on exhibit November 5th through the 8th. The jurors were Lino Tagliapietra , Italian glass Maestro, Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, and Tom Hawk, Director, Hawk Galleri

• Kristin Totoritis, BFA candidate, received a scholarship to Penland for glassblowing
  
  
• BFA, Kathleen Kennedy, is working as a studio assistant for two artists, Nancy Worden and Gina Pankowski. Kathleen also has a new website to share  www.kathleenwkennedy.com

• Jason Hackett, MFA,  just launched his website. Check it out:  www.jasonhackettceramics.com  

• Sonya Clark, chair, will have work included in the Uber Portrait exhibit at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington June 16 - October 18. Sonya will have some work up at the Illinois exhibition at McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington, IL from June 26- August 8. Sonya will have work at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY in the exhibit Dress Codes: Clothing as Sculpture curated by Barbara Bloemink July 12 - October 4.
  

May 2009

• Roberto Celis,  was elected as Vice President to the VCU Student Government Association of the Monroe Park Campus.  Roberto  was also awarded a series of awards and scholarships including one to attend Penland this summer, the Green Award at the Planet E(art)h exhibit in the Student Commons Gallery, a $2500 License Plate Affinity Award, and a $2500 Multicultural Diversity Award.  
  
  
• Other prize winners in the Planet E(art)h exhibit in the Student Commons Gallery include Kristina Totoritis, who won the Dean's Award and Elaine Butcher, who won the Student Choice Award.)
  
  
• Brittany Felter, Cathy Nault, and Barbara Dorrough,  and Meg Christensen  were awarded scholarships to attend Peter's Valley Fiber classes this summer.

• Olivia Lewis received the incoming Craft/ Material Studies student $1000 Deans Scholarship. 
  
  
• Lenora Mesnard received the Outstanding Student award from the Surface Design Association.
  
  
• Melanie Seegere,  received one of the University-wide Summer Undergraduate Fellowships for 2009.  Melanie also received a $300 Peachtree award and and $300 Eastman Award for her work in glass.
  
  
• Other  Peachtree recipients were Ryan Tanner,  and Brenna Rondeau.

• The other Allan Eastman Award recipients include Morgan Robinson  for her work in clay, Colleen Freeman  for her work in fiber,  and Emma Shirley  for her work in metals. 
  
  
• Olivia de Soria received the first $200 Evelyn Dunn Award for her work in the Senior Show.  The prize was selected by  our very own Barbara Werner.

• Jill Rich was awarded the Undergraduate Juried student award for Craft/Material Studies for her  Introductions Series.  This prize was selected by juror David McFadden, Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. Jill also received a $2000 Deans Scholarship.
  
  
• Leilani Gonzales received a Student Assistantship for the SNAG conference in Philadelphia this May 20-23

• Kent Perdue just received an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Kent also has two pieces, "Sling Table" and "Just one more minute", nominated by William Hammersley  were accepted  and will be on display at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts as part of FURNITURE09: “Industrious” The Design, Craft & Commerce of Furniture Making at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina as well as in an online showcase linked from the Furniture Society’s website. 

• Gabriel Craig, MFA candidate,  is published again this month.  This time it is an 8-page full-color article, "Seeing Green: Towards Sustainable Jewelry Practices",  that he wrote in Metalsmith Magazine  p 32-39. Gabriel has work up at the  Stuff: Jewelry for the People  exhibit at Sub-Octo Gallery in Philadelphia from May 20-23. 

• Gabriel and Amy Weiks, a former 5th year student,  recently were awarded a 12 month joint Residency that starts this fall at the Houston Center of Contemporary Craft in Texas. 

• Keith Mendak,  MFA candidate, was accepted in the Bearing Witness exhibit in Chicago's ARC Gallery during the month of June.  Keith  also got a nice page write up in the April issue of Richmond Magazine for an altar he installed at the slave burial grounds site/Lumpkins Jail.

• Keith Mendak and Eum Youn Seal, MFA candidates, have had their collaborative  necklace, Couple, from the condom jewelry series, Play it Safe selected for the Kinsey Sex show at Indiana University.
  

• Hiromi Takizawa, MFA candidate,  was in the group exhibit, the mini shiny show, at Gallery 831 in Columbus, OH last  month.

• Friday,  May 1, 5-10 p. m. : MFA alumni, Katie Hudnall, Lizzie perkins, Debbie Quick, Aaron Stubbs, and Sayaka Suzuki,  will have an open studio at Lab 307 at 307 N 26th Street in Richmond, VA
  

• Joe Grant III, MFA, will be head of the Glass Program in the 3-D Area of Studies in the School of the Arts at Illinois State University Bloomington/Normalfor the academic year 2009-2010.
  

• Adam Welch, MFA,  has  works featured in the new Lark Books publication, 500 Ceramic Sculptures
  

• Katie Hudnall, MFA,  received the first ever University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Art, Wood/Furniture Area Resident Artist Program for $15,000!
  

• Lizzie Perkins, MFA, has work up on the site http://www.notcot.org/page/5/?action=search&query=glass
  

• Travis Townsend, MFA,  is in the exhibit, Penland: Great Teachers, Great Artists at Habatat Gallery in Tysons Corner, VA  from April 28th to July 17. Travis will be included in the Cedarhurst Wood Project at the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and the "Transformations" Raphael Prize show at Pittsburgh's Society for Contemporary Craft. 
  

• Katie Hudnall, MFA,  received the first University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Art, Wood/Furniture Area Resident Artist Program for $15,000!
  

• Sidney Deaghlan, BFA, was accepted into graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
  

• Ryan Hereth, BFA,  has been a resident at Cub Creek and will be exhibiting his work along with the other residents at the Heart of Virginia Festival in Farmville, VA on May 2.
  

• Virginia Griswold, BFA,  was just accepted @ Alfred University's MFA program with a full scholarship
  

• Heath Matysek-Snyder, MFA,  is in a one year residency at Designed Objects Tasmania in Hobart.  Heath was in a juried biennial exhibition entitled the "Tasmanian Wood Design Collection Biennial Acquisitive Exhibition" which opened in Hobart and moved to Launceston. Heath has also been a visiting artist at the University of Tasmania, Art School in the Furniture Design Department.  He proposed and was selected for a public art commission Tasmania for the new pediatrics wing of the Royal Hobart Hospital.
  

• Nanda Soderberg, MFA, is working at the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state as a gaffer for artists, Whitfield Lovell and Elizabeth Turk, this summer.
  

• Sarah Holden, BFA, has work in her first international exhibition where she is eligible for 3 different awards at The Port Moody Art Awards in Port Moody British Colombia, Canada.   Sarah also has work in the Fibers Expanded exhibit at the Luke and Eloy Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. Sarah also had interviews published on the art blogs, MYARTSPACE BLOG, and IMPLICIT ART

• Allan Rosenbaum  and  Lydia Thompson have works featured in the new Lark Books publication, 500 Ceramic Sculptures
  

• Susie Ganch will participate in RE/ACTION(S) at Craft Alliance, St Louis, MO, May/June 2009, a group show curated by Gail M. Brown. Also, Susie's collaborative  Radical Jewelry Makeover Project  was reviewed in a a two-page full color essay by Kate Dobbs Arial in the April issue of  Metalsmith Magazine page 20-21.
  

• Sonya Clark's work at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art was favorably reviewed at the end of an article by Holland Cotter in the New York Times.  Sonya will have several pieces included in the group exhibit, Hair on Fire, at the Halsey Institute at the College of Charleston in South Carolina which runs from May 14- June 15. Sonya's work is also included in the Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles exhibit, Upcycling: reclaiming past lives, from May 8- June 8.

April 2009

• Kent Perdue, BFA candidate,  is the first VCU undergraduate student ever to have won a prestigious national $15,000 Windgate Fellowship Award.  
  

• MFA candidates, Keith Mendak, Akiko Jackson, and Ryan Gothrup, were all awarded Thesis Assistantships through the Graduate School at VCU. 
  

• Maureen Elswick and Roberto Celis, BFA candidates,  each received a $1000 Dean's International Study Grant from VCU.
  

• Gabriel Craig, MFA candidate,  published a full color 5 page article on his work the April/May issue of American Craft Magazine
  

• Olivia de Soria, BFA candidate,  had her Gumball necklace featured in the style section of the March issue of Virginia Living Magazine
  

• Mary Andrews, BFA, directs the merchandising department, Etsy.com .  Mary and etsy were featured recently on CBS Sunday Morning in an interview where Mo Rocca investigated America’s handmade economy. Mary was also featured as a contributing editor in  N.E.E.T magazine's March issue in which she wrote on Etsy artists who have been able to sell their art full time on the site. 
  

• Matthew Isaacson, MFA, has a solo exhibit from April 3rd - 24th at Columbus State University's, University Hall, Experimental Theatre.
  

• Katie Hudnall, MFA,  has her work included in Design Book Eight just released by Taunton Press
  

• Lindsey Jochets, BFA,  was just accepted into the graduate program  for an MA @ Parsons/Cooper Hewitt in the History of Decorative Arts and Design
  

• Jackie Walther, BFA candidate,  received a scholarship to attend Haystack this summer

• Natalya Pinchuk gave a lecture on her work at the Corcoran in Washington, DC and has two person show at Jewelers' Werk Gallery  March 27-April 16 also in DC.
  

• Lydia Thompson  has a six page full color article on her work in the March 2009 issue of Ceramics: Art and Perception. 
  

• Jason Hackett  has work included in the exhibit, Room For Eleven at RJP Nomadic Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona as part of the NCECA conference. 
  

• Sonya Clark has work in DC at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art exhibit,  Mami Wata,  that opens April 1 runs through July 26.  A review of her talk and solo exhibit at the List Gallery is in The Daily Gazette.  Her work is also in the Encyclopedia of African American Artists by Dele Jegede published by Greenwood Press (Westport, Connecticut: 2009). And locally, her work was featured in the March issue of Virginia Living Magazine.

February 2009

• For the second year faculty member, Natalya Pinchuk, has organized VCU's booth at ACC-Baltimore, the premier craft exhibit in the nation. The booth will include work by current students and recent alumni:   Olivia DeSoria, Keaton Freeman, Holly Clark, Danielle Stevens, Nathalie David, Carol Sauer, Amy Weiks, Kent Perdue, Brenna Rondeau, Cari Freno, Marisa Barbara, Keith Mendak, Younseal Eum, Andrea Donnelly, Meg Roberts, Mary Fray, Hiromi Takizawa, Jeremy Dunn, Gabriel Craig, Amanda Costello, Carlene Bermann, Britanny Felter  and Devin Trom. Also at ACC-Baltimore, check out the glass work of Nanda Soderberg, MFA,  in the special Searchlight Section.  

• MFA candidiates, Aaron McIntosh, Hiromi Takizawa, and Andrea Donnelly are presenting their work at 1708 Gallery in Richmond on Saturday, February 7th for the Fourth Annual Graduate Art Student Forum.The event is from 5:30 -8:30 and will feature presentations of new art by 8 MFA candidates from UVA and VCU:    http://1708gallery.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

• Cynthia Myron, MFA,  will have her work included in "Decorative Resurgence" at Rowan University during the annual Society of North American Goldsmith's Conference.  The exhibition will be open from 4/20 through 5/28.   Cynthia's  smiling face and a piece of her work  graced the cover of the cover of the James Renwick Alliance's Quarterly Magazine.  The Alliance came to Richmond this fall to check out or craft scene and they had a great time.  Also in the Renwick's Quarterly Magazine was an article called "We Learned About Craft Education in Richmond" in which faculty members,  Susie Ganch, Jack Wax  and  Sonya Clark were mentioned along with alumni, Kiara Pelissier and Hyun Kyung Yoon.  Susie Ganch and Kazue Taguchi, MFA  had images of their work highlighted.  

• Sheal Eum, MFA candidate,  will be showing her work at the New York Toy Fair in NYC February 15-18  at the Javits Convention Center. This is the largest toy fair in the Western Hemisphere.

• Josh Rodenberg, MFA,  is at Rowan University teaching 3D foundations

• Susana Almuina, MFA candidate, and Nicole Bauman, MFA,  have work included in "New Waves 2009"  at the The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CAC) in Virginia Beach from January 23-March 15, 2009.  The exhibit has been juried by Josée Bienvenu, founder and director of Josée Bienvenu Gallery located in Chelsea, New York and Brian Holcombe, founder and director of Saltworks Gallery located in Atlanta, Georgia.

• Hiromi Takizawa, MFA candidate, has work at See Line Gallery  Jan 17th -Feb 28th http://seelinegallery.com/ .  Hiromi  is a NICHE 2009 student award Finalists in Glass http://www.americancraft.com/NICHE_Awards/2009/f_student/glass.html. Hiromi has work up at California State University, Fullerton Grand Central Art Center 10th Anniversary Exhibition & Alumni from Feb7th- April 11th http://www.grandcentralartcenter.com/eHiromi's  work will be included in  Glass Review 31 published by the Corning Museum of Glass in NY.

• The work of Virginia Griswold, MFA, and faculty member, Natalya Pinchuk, are included in the Next Iconoclasts at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, January 15 - February 22. The exhibit is juried by Gail Brown

January 2009

• Hyun Kyung Yoon, MFA,  has a solo exhibit,  Indeterminate Lines, that opened at the Delaware Center of Contemporary Art on January 9.  

• Ryan Gothrup, MFA candidate, and Cari Freno, MFA candidate,  both received SCHEV merit award for their art work

• Aaron McIntosh, MFA candidate,  and Andrea Donnelly, MFA candidate,  were selected as graduate assistants for the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design (CCCD) conference "Inspired Design" held this January in North Carolina.  
  

• Hiromi Takizawa,  MFA candidate, Aaron McIntosh, MFA candidate,  and Andrea Donnelly, MFA candidate,  will all be included in the 1708 Forum exhibit at Capital One in February in Richmond, VA. 
  

• Mary Cox, BFA candidate, was awarded a VCUarts Undergraduate Research Grant with Jessica N. Price called "Magnetic Jewelry"
  

• Gabriel Craig, MFA candidate, had a review of his work in Laughingstock, an exhibition at Luke and Eloy Gallery in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Gabriel  is also in  is in "Decorative Resurgence" at the Rowan University Art Gallery in Glassboro, NJ from April-May. 
  

• Jackie Brown, MFA, has been accepted to the 23rd International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. The juror is Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show opens February 13th, 2009.
  

• Kazue Taguchi, MFA, was in a group exhibit "Ethnography of No Place" at the Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College in Baltimore.  It was listed as one of the Top Ten exhibits for the year in the Baltimore City Paper
  

• Katie Hudnall, MFA, will be having three of her works published in a book by Schiffer; loosely titled, 100 Great Wood Artists and will present on a panel that she organized on Emerging Artists at the 2009 Furniture Society conference this summer.  Her work can also be seen on the Society of Contemporary Craft website.
  

• Hiromi Takizawa,  MFA candidate, will be in a group exhibit at California State College, Fullerton that opens next month.  
  

• Megan Biddle, MFA, is on a 2 month Residency at the  prestigious MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. 
  

• Susie Ganch  has work included in the exhibit, SOUL'S JOURNEY: INSIDE THE CREATIVE PROCESS: 22 Contemporary Object Makers from the Southeast, at the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design (CCCD)  in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The exhibit is up January 23-April 25. A two-hour documentary of the artists and their work will also be shown.  
  

• Jason Hackett is in an exhibit called  Endangered at Kennedy Gallery in Brooklyn, NY from February  4th through February 28th. 
  

• Sonya Clark's  solo exhibit "Loose Strands, Tight Knots" at the Walter's Museum in Baltimore, MD was also listed as one of the Top Ten exhibits for the year in the Baltimore City Paper and "Second Lives" at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in NYC has been so well received that the exhibit has been extended through April 2009. Also,  Channel 13/WNET in NYC and Ralph Caplan's article in AIGA's Voice magazine have spotlighted Sonya's piece in the MAD exhibit.

 

December 2008

• Sleight of Hand @ Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA, "National Juried Craft Show" opening Friday, December 5 at 7:30pm.  Juried by Faculty member Natalya Pinchuk, this exhibit includes the work of many of our alumni and current students including Gabriel Craig, Ryan Gothrup, Aaron McIntosh, Danielle Stevens, Elizabeth Perkins, Kathleen Kennedy, Katie Hudnall, and Amy Weiks
  
  
• Kathryn Cole, BFA 2007, has a solo show, Bits and Pieces of a Place, that opens December 5 and runs through January 15 at Modern Formations Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA

• Kent Perdue, BFA 2009 candidate, has been selected by the department as a Windgate Fellowship nominee
  

• Caroline Gore, BFA 1998, showed her work at SOFA Chicago in November with Ornamentum Gallery. She also presented a lecture at SOFA as part of the SNAG Emerging Artists Series 
  
  
• Kazue Taguchi, MFA 2007, has been selected as theArtist in Residence at Corning Glass Museum in New York for March 2009

• Keith Mendak, MFA 2009 candidate, has hisglass teeth included in Fine Contemporary Crafts Exhibition at Artspace in Raleigh NC. Nov. 22 - Jan.10
  
  
• Ryan Gothrup's, MFA 2009 candidate, "Feverloscher", has been chosen as a finalist in the category of Glass: Sculptural for the2009 NICHE Student Awards competition

• John Sutter, MFA 2009 candidate, wrote areview of the Furniture Society Conference that was recently published in their Newsletter. The article looks back to the first conference, which was ten years ago. This is the third published conference review Jon has done for the Furniture Society
  
  
• Emily Henry, MFA 2008, won the Award of Excellence for works on paper in the SICA  (Shore Institute of Contemporary Art ) under the name Sayward Henry. See http://www.sica.org/Exhibitions/2008Juried_Winners.html Emily also has work at Inner Noise at Caladan Gallery in Cambridge, MA and annual juried show at Second Stage Studio in Rhode Island in December. Also, Emily will be showing her work internationally at the Blutenweiss Nomad Art Project "Anonymous Drawings" which will be on view in Berlin at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanian
  
  
• Anna Mills, BFA 1995, has been accepted in to theArt Therapy Masters program in New Mexico (Southwestern University)
  
  
• Emilie Brown (now  Emilie  Henry), MFA 2008,  had her work shown in Lafayette Mill Gallery in Rhode Island in October. In November she will show at  the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art (SICA) in New Jersey, and she will participate in a fundraiser for L.A. Center for digital arts (LACDA).   Emilie is also teaching at The School of Art- Boca Raton Museum of Art

• Meg Roberts, BFA candidate 2009,  just had her piece "Extreme Crafted" by Garth Johnson.  Check it out under Doo Right:
  http://www.extremecraft.com
  
  
• Cynthia Myron, MFA 2004,  who also teaches as an adjunct in the department will have a new piece of hers included in the James Renwick Alliance Craft Weekendheld at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 25, 2009
  
  
• Susana Almuina, MFA 2009 candidate, will be showing her work at the upcoming exhibit,New Waves 2009 at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
  
  
• Natalya Pinchuk, will be in two upcoming exhibits:Next Iconoclasts, Hoffman Gallery, Oregon College of Art and Craft, curated by Gail M. Brown and the30th Annual Contemporary Crafts Exhibition, Mesa Contemporary Arts, juror Namita Wiggers. Natalya also has two new websites. One for her work in general,www.natalyapinchuk.com, and another for the project she will be doing while at a an Artist Residence program inAmsterdamlater this month, www.uglyobjects.com

• Jack Wax, has his work included in the new 250 page full color book, Contemporary Glass Sculptures and Panels
  
  
• Jason Hackett, was in "NOT Fit for Human Consumption"(An All-Ceramic Sculpture Exhibition) at Gallery 5 in Richmond that ran November 7-28

• The full color catalog for the Japan Jewellery Biennial that includes the work of Susie Ganch has recently been published
  
  
• Susan Iverson had her work  published in the  Craft Report online review of Fiber Philadelphia and the International Fiber Biennial

• Sonya Clark had her work,  Madam CJ Walker,  highlighted on the Fiji TV News in Japan.  The same work was also cited in the December/January issue of  American Craft Magazine. Sonya also has her work highlighted in a twelve page spread in the new book  150 page full color book, Manufractured, published by Chronicle Books.  The book was published in conjunction with the exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR

November 2008

• On Monday, November 24th and Tuesday the 25th from 11am-7pm the Contemporary Craft Society presents the Holiday Craft Sale, featuring works by students in the VCUarts Crafts/ Material Studies department. The event will be held on the VCU Monroe Park Campus in lobby of Fine Arts Building 1000 West Broad St. Various works of art will be available for purchase with sales benefiting the artists and the Contemporary Craft Society. Contemporary Craft Society Holiday Craft Sale Poster
  
  
• Jason Hackett was in ceramic exhibition "Not Fit for Human Consumption" Gallery 5 (the firehouse) in November 2008 http://www.gallery5arts.org/Home/BFBF0F89-12A5-46F1-9592-CAFE3A7131F9.html 

• Linda Laino, BFA 1985 and MFA 1991, received a $5000 Fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts
  

• Jeannine Hill, BFA 2006,  was in "Unmarked Pathways: emerging voices in contemporary art" at North Georgia College and State University 
  
  
• Katie Hudnall , MFA 2005, has a two page full color spread in Fine Woodworking's Furniture: 102 Contemporary Designs (2008,Taunton Press)

• Jessica Schlacter, MFA 2010 candidate, just had her work purchased by the Enameled Arts Foundation and was asked by famed enamelist, June Schwarcz to demonstrate her skills
  
  
• Aaron McIntosh's, MFA 2010 candidate Communicating with the Past  has been accepted into the Quilt National '09 Exhibition. There will be a catalog published and the exhibit will travel nationally. Aaron will also have his work included  in an exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC in an upcoming exhibit on cut paper

• Gabriel Craig, MFA 2009 candidate, Amy Weiks, 5th year alumna, will be in the exhibition Laughingstock: Humor in Art and Craft at Luke and Eloy Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA, November 15th - December 23. Gabriel's work, Narcissist no.6 will be published in 500 Enameled Objects by Lark Books, due out Spring 2009
  
  
• Adam Welch,  MFA 2003, has been working with http://www.artaxis.org/ since its inception and is now working with its creator to start an annual e-journal
  
  
• Natalya Pinchuk has her work included in two recent books:  Jewellery from Natural Materials  by Beth Legg  Adorn: New Jewelry by Amanda Mansell. Both books were published in London. Natalya was also invited to be an artist-in-residence in Amsterdam Dec. 12-Jan. 12 organized by Atelier Ted Noten at a former brothel room, 4 by 4 meters in size, recently converted by the city in their effort to gentrify the red light district.  For a month she will be doing a version of "ugly object" project. For more on the residency, see: http://www.tednoten.com/2008/06/08/offered-artistinresidence-place/
  
  
• Emilie Brown (now  Emilie  Henry), MFA 2008,  had her work shown in Lafayette Mill Gallery in Rhode Island in October. In November she will show at  the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art (SICA) in New Jersey, and she will participate in a fundraiser for L.A. Center for digital arts (LACDA).   Emilie is also teaching at The School of Art- Boca Raton Museum of Art.

• Rachel Rader, BFA 2006, is having her first show in Seattle at VAIN http://www.vain.com/blog/
  
  
• Sonya, Susie Ganch, and Natalya Pinchuk will all have work SOFA Chicago November 6-9 at Navy Pier. They will be represented by Snyderman Gallery, Sienna Gallery, and Charon Kransen Arts, respectively. Sonya  and  Susie  each received Virginia Commission for the Arts $5000 Artist Fellowships. Along with alumna Linda Laino (see above), all three VCA Fellows this year are from VCU Craft/Material Studies
  
  
• Susie Ganch and the Radical Jewelry Makeover were written up in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Check it out http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/10/19/LV2713GAVU.DTL
  
  
• Sonya Clark  was a juror for the Chenven Foundation grants this year and awarded $1500 prizes from a pool of almost 400 applicatints.  For more about the Chenven Award see: http://www.chenvenfoundation.org/

• Sonya Clark  will be heading out to Portland, Oregon to give a lecture and workshop in conjunction with the Maufractured exhibit she is in at teh Museum of Contemporary Craft.
  

October 2008

• Natalya Pinchuk is in Girls Play Games exhibit at Facere Gallery in Seattle from October 1-25.  Also, Natalya Pinchuk will be featured in the jewelry book, Adorn, published by Laurence King, coming out this fall as well as Mixed Media Jewellery published by A&C Black, coming out in 2009. Also, two images of her work were published in Jewellery from Natural Materials, A&C Black
  
  
• Susan Iverson lectured at the Kentucky Museum of Art  and Craft in conjunction with the travelling American Tapestry Alliance Biennial 7 exhibition on October 25 at 1pm in Louisville, KY.

• Tina Boy is the Core Exhibit at Penland Gallery.  See the article written about the show at http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2008/100108fierce_dedication_to_craft
  
  
• Younseal Eum will have her robot design featured on the cover of  'Servo magazine,' the leading magazine in the robot field. That's her piece on the issue pictured on their website: http://www.servomagazine.com/
  
  
• Gillian Maniscalco, BFA 2008, is interning at Anthropologie in the Art & Color dept doing fabric design.
  
  
• Sayaka Suzuki, MFA 2005, presented a talk "Material as Alphabets; encouraging a flexible grammar" at a panel discussion at Mid America College Art Association held at Herron School of Art and Design at Indianapolis, IN. Sayaka, also, was accepted to teach a workshop next summer at The Pittsburgh Glass Center.

• Josh Rodenberg, MFA 2007, was awarded a solo show at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in Indiana for the summer of '09.
  
  
• Alissa Davis  has published her first review in Whitehot Magazine.  See http://whitehotmagazine.com/whitehot_articles.cfm?id=1543
  
  
• Gabriel Craig just received  a $3500 graduate research grant to continue to pursue his research on ironwork research from the Center for Craft Creativity and Design. With this prestigious grant he will lead an interdepartmental coalition at VCU in the study of Aesthetic/Arts and Crafts Movement materials currently in the collection of G. Krug and Son, the oldest continuously operating ironworks in the country.He is also in the process of starting a new Craft Zine for up and coming artists.
  
  
• Hyun Kyun Yoon, MFA 2007, has had her work pictured in several magazines of late including: Ceramics Monthly, American Style, and House and Design

September2008

• At 1708 Gallery  from September 4 - October 11, Craft/Material Studies alumna, Rebecca Murtaugh (MFA 2001) will be showing site specific installations with Matthew Gehring
  
  
• Reflect(s), a glass exhibit featurung the work of several the Craft/Material Studies glass area's best opens at the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA on September 5th, 2008. Including in the exhibition are faculty member Jack Wax and alumni Kiara Pelissier (MFA 2006) and Kazue Taguchi (MFA 2007).
  
  
• Craft/Material Studies aculty member, Susie Ganch's work is on the cover of the most recent Metalsmith Magazine Vol. 28, No.3 with a seven page full color article about her work.
  
  
• Undergraduate student, Jacquelyn Walther, had three pieces of her work were featured in the Premio International di Scultura. 

Spring 2008

• Craft/Material Studies assistant professor Susie Ganch has been awarded the NICHE Arts Educator of the Year by American Craft 2008.
  
  
• Craft/Material Studies students will be at the American Craft Council Craft Show at the Baltimore
  Convention Center 2/22-2/25/08.
  
  
• Graduate student Ann Walsh has two chairs that will be included in the forthcoming Lark Books publication, 500 Chairs.
  
  
• Alumna Rebecca Summerour is working on the conservation of several 17th century tapestries at the at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC.